Backup System For 5 PC SMB
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@BRRABill said:
Most of the SMB people I help are not enterprise. I know best practice would be to have a server, have all data on that, and voila.
Well, I didn't suggest any central server for files at all. But that, obviously, is necessary to take these guys into the SMB category as central storage is needed to stay about the home line, IMHO. This isn't about SMB vs Enterprise, it is about SMB vs Hobby or low end home use.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
Most of the SMB people I help are not enterprise.
Which is why it seems strange that you are going for a more than enterprise backup system rather than something more SMB geared.
Actually I would think this would go more toward your "being weird" situation.
Not quite, but leaning slightly that way. I'd say more of the "You Are Not Special" where the SMB market tends to think that they need things above and beyond what an enterprise would have and just goes for huge overkill without realize how far they are overshooting the norm in one area while missing it dramatically in others.
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How big are your files? Could you just sign up for one drive and keep all files on it. It's not a true backup but provides more than you have now.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
Most of the SMB people I help are not enterprise.
Which is why it seems strange that you are going for a more than enterprise backup system rather than something more SMB geared.
Actually I would think this would go more toward your "being weird" situation.
Or what we might think of as an impedance mismatch: the backup solution is going to "enterprise+" while the storage system that is being backed up is "below smb." Overkill on one, underkill on the other.
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@Jason said:
How big are your files? Could you just sign up for one drive and keep all files on it. It's not a true backup but provides more than you have now.
Good thing to consider. This is really the "starting point" for the SOHO business range that we are talking about here. That approach should be considered before anything else.
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@Jason said:
It would be cheaper to get a small Linux file server or even windows to store data (or even a good NAS) than to do all this both in waste of time (OpEX) and Cost to do it (CapEX)
I agree, this approach isn't bad, but it doesn't feel like it is going to address the final goals in an optimum way.
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Also something huge that I have not seen mentioned, it has been hinted at but not stated: Going for image backups for rapid restores but lacking a local server means.... any restore will be done from some really slow media so the restore will take forever and the image backup will actually make that much slower than necessary rather than faster.
Did I miss any factor that would make the above incorrect?
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@BRRABill said:
But almost none of the really small businesses I see do that. They run their business and have a bunch of personal files on their machines.
This is a very important concept: just because people don't do smart things doesn't mean that we should not recommend that they do and help them fix bad practices.
Too often in IT we simply accept bad business processes, sometimes giving up so early that the business never finds out that we all think that they are missing the obvious, good answers. Sure, some businesses don't listen - it is the hallmark of the SMB market to make bad business decisions as we well know - but just because most SMBs do things poorly does not mean that we should not try to fix this where we can and should not continue to develop good practices and guidelines for them. Most SMBs don't do good storage or backups, but most don't stay in business low either. So what "most" do isn't a good guideline for anything to repeat.
Not that this business is making reckless decisions, sounds like they might just be imbalanced and not getting an optimum mix of storage and backup because they likely don't understand how one decision impacts another.
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Here are a few "throwing pasta at the wall" ideas to kick around:
- Get a small NAS to use for backups. Stick with StorageCraft or look at Veeam Endpoint Protection or similar. Use local backup files so that you can actually do fast restores. (You can then send this to a cloud backup location too if desired.)
- Move everyone to central NAS storage and fix their underlying issues. No need for all of this complication at all.
- Move everyone to storage through a product like ownCloud, MS Office 365 OneDrive for Business, Google Drive, DropBox, etc. Eliminate the issue completely.
- Continue to use backup products like StorageCraft and avoid getting a NAS but move to AetherStore to turn the unused local drive space into a backup target for the network.
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I've many, many, many times told many, many, many SMBs they are wasting time/money/etc and should install a server/etc. It is a huge brick wall most of the time. And these are my friends, not people we are trying to get jobs from.
It's actually a reason we decided not to go into the small (20 person or less) MSP space. (I'll have to post on the MSP thread another day.) It's just too much time fighting to get companies to a simple baseline.
IBut, I am interested in all the great new product ideas this thread will pop up, and I am sure we'll get a good solution. Errrr...a solution that is OK, at least!
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@scottalanmiller said:
- Get a small NAS to use for backups. Stick with StorageCraft or look at Veeam Endpoint Protection or similar. Use local backup files so that you can actually do fast restores. (You can then send this to a cloud backup location too if desired.)
That is exactly what I am looking to do.
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
- Get a small NAS to use for backups. Stick with StorageCraft or look at Veeam Endpoint Protection or similar. Use local backup files so that you can actually do fast restores. (You can then send this to a cloud backup location too if desired.)
That is exactly what I am looking to do.
Ah, the requirement to not have a server sounded like a NAS would not be an option since a NAS is just a type of server. That requirement was confusing. If having a NAS is acceptable we have much better options.
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@BRRABill said:
I've many, many, many times told many, many, many SMBs they are wasting time/money/etc and should install a server/etc. It is a huge brick wall most of the time. And these are my friends, not people we are trying to get jobs from.
Server? Where? Oh you mean this little box? Pfffft, nah man, this is just a NAS. Not a scary server. I wouldn't do that to you!
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@scottalanmiller said:
Ah, the requirement to not have a server sounded like a NAS would not be an option since a NAS is just a type of server. That requirement was confusing. If having a NAS is acceptable we have much better options.
Ah, perhaps that is what was confusing people.
Yes, there has to be a place to store the local ShadowProtect/Veeam/Etc backup. But I am looking for cloud replication of those backups, because some of the places I deal with, it's not out of the realm of possibility they backup device would be stolen along with the PC.
I was originally thinking USB drive on each machine, but a NAS would work just as well. And I know some of the NASes out there you can replicate.
Are we getting somewhere?
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@BRRABill Yup! I still suggest a synology nas + cloudsync to nas + backup nas to cloud + schedule disk2vhd
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@scottalanmiller said:
I actually think that AetherStore might be your real answer here. You get to keep everything that you have as it is, add nothing but one piece of software and voila... you have storage capacity on your network with rapid restore capabilities. Calling @shannon @Rob @aboyd
Hmm. Seems like with 5 computers it would be pretty fragile though.
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So from a product standpoint, it sounds like a two bay Synology, ioSafe or ReadyNAS is where you want to be. Those are the vendors that make the most sense here.
For a small business like this ioSafe might be very interesting as their ioSafe 214 is the perfect size and is fire safe and water resistant.
@Brett-at-ioSafe for ioSafe
@jvwelch for Synology -
@Jason said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I actually think that AetherStore might be your real answer here. You get to keep everything that you have as it is, add nothing but one piece of software and voila... you have storage capacity on your network with rapid restore capabilities. Calling @shannon @Rob @aboyd
Hmm. Seems like with 5 computers it would be pretty fragile though.
The stock setup is to use only four.
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@MattSpeller said:
@BRRABill Yup! I still suggest a synology nas + cloudsync to nas + backup nas to cloud + schedule disk2vhd
Are you overwriting the backup each time you do that? Also, isn't that going to take a considerable amount of time?
It's why I was thining incremental imaged-based would be the way to go.
